Hot Fuzz 2007
This British cop spoof went to DVD quickly, but got some good reviews earlier in the year. I can see how some people would really go crazy over this movie, and it probably gets better with repeated viewings. But the first time through the movie plays out fairly conventionally before throwing in some horror movie violence (the same people made the zombie movie spoof Shaun of the Dead) and huge shootouts. There are some great side characters in tiny roles including Steve Coogan and Bill Nighy as London police higher ups. The main character’s buddy (Nick Frost) says some very funny things. Much of the humor is deadpan like when the main character (Simon Pegg, also the co-writer) explains that it is a “police service” because “police force” sounded too violent. No doubt it is true, but it is also funny. But not all that funny. I think Pegg playing everything so completely straight kind of hurts the movie. As you get to know the characters and understand the humor, the movie grows on you, but ultimately they end up giving us a fairly normal shoot-em-up movie with some jokes rather than something like Airplane where they just throw one joke after another hoping that some will be funny. I’ll give this a B.
Follow up: I watched this again after seeing the other movies of what became a trilogy. The first hour or so of this movie is really good with tons of funny lines, but I think similar to the first time I watched it, with the final shootout being kind of silly and meaningless, though that is how all of these movies end. So it is still kind of a near miss for me, although definitely worth watching, even twice.
Written: 09 Aug 2007
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital